Apotheosis - the ascension into godhood.

[Crowing]

"What if man could harness the power of a god? In a sense, he would need God no longer, yes?"
-Ghost, "From the Pinnacle to the Pit"

Sometimes, I wonder about the nature of higher forces, as I'm sure any curious mind would. Some philosophers speak of a transformation known as apotheosis, the elevation of one into becoming a higher force, a god. How could this be achieved? Possibly, one would suggest extensive knowledge of the occult and convoluted rituals would be exercised to achieve such abilities.

However, I have another idea.

There are some people who are known to be unparalleled in their areas of expertise. In the modern day, we could consider Stephen King to be a master of (horror) literature, for example, while Stephen Hawking is remembered as the greatest scientist of our modern era. Let's take these two examples, horror and science respectively,

King and Hawking are considered masters of their crafts. King, for instance, knows exactly what makes a reader engrossed in a story. He uses this to full effect in creating stories able to reel in an audience even in an age where everything is digitalised. It is this knowledge which makes him a master of his craft. However, all knowledge has its limits... supposedly.

What if one were to truly master their area of expertise, unparalleled, become something greater than a master of their craft... a god of their craft?

The Greek had a pantheon where each concept had a god assigned to it. Poseidon was the god of the sea, Hades the underworld, Apollo of music, and so on. They were, in a sense, gods of their craft. So my idea is this: what if, by mastering a craft to fullest extent, one would become a god of said craft? What if the key to apotheosis lied not in knowledge of the occult, but knowledge of specific crafts? The artist whose vision is unparalleled would become a god of art, the ruthless general holding dominion over war, and so on?

Such a thing is difficult to pinpoint the exact truth of. Such is the nature of the far unknown. I can only speculate, and that which I speculate is of how absolute mastery of a craft would result in their own apotheosis into a pantheon of sorts. A skeptic belief of this would be that the achiever of such a feat would remain here on Earth as a mortal being. However, I'm a little superstitious and writing this essay has made me wonder a little further, so I'll go over some additional ideas I have.

It may be possible that all roads lead to the occult as it is known. After all, occultism is hidden knowledge, and mastery of a craft would require all knowledge in that area. Knowledge that would inevitably veer into the realm of hidden knowledge as all secrets are made to be uncovered. If this is the case, apotheosis would now be proven to be based in occultism as initially assumed, only not in the manner initially believed.

But how would one know when they have mastered a craft? My belief here is that... well, I believe they would simply know. I believe this is where the supernatural would begin to take form. Perhaps, once all roads lead to the realm of hidden knowledge, the higher forces which are so prevalent in occultism would manifest, regardless of what the person was seeking. Perhaps these higher powers are the gatekeepers of knowledge and it is up to them to intervene only when they find we have progressed beyond a certain point.

I've heard accounts of a strange "Threshold Guardian" who manifests after certain occultists have reached a stage of knowledge in the craft. Perhaps this guardian manifests to us all who have sought knowledge greater than what is typically known. I, myself, have had a few strange dreams here and there after my forays into what I'd consider my own area of expertise... but I feel like we're going off on a tangent here. All I'm saying is, it may be possible the Threshold Guardian is the manifestation of what has come down to witness our expertise firsthand. Perhaps he will be the final hurdle for those to truly overcome when the time and desire has come for the master to apotheosize.

Then what? Well, as I've said, the Greek had a pantheon. So did the Egyptians. Perhaps, to some extent, there are gods in rotation, each coming and going as their apotheoses see fit? Perhaps these are all gods who have apotheosized and now hold the dominion over their respective crafts, maybe Johnny is now taking over after Zeus or Osiris were getting tired of their jobs? Who knows? This is all speculation, there is no way to tell as I've said before, so all we can do right now is think. Think, and speculate.

...Speaking of speculation, I've really said a lot, haven't I? This may be the longest essay I've ever written aside from that story I wrote for the contest that one time. I don't even know what inspired me to write this or why I specifically had to write this on a Nintendo forum. All I know is, well-

TL;DR Maybe the key to apotheosis (the ascension into godhood) is through master of specific crafts such as literature and science, rather than occultism specifically, which could lead into the realm of hidden knowledge in each specific craft, where they would be met by a celestial gatekeeper who would ultimately test their mettle before they apotheosize.

Maybe the gatekeeper is specific to each craft. Maybe the gatekeeper is specific for art, science... you know.

 

[Artisan]

Throughout my experiences in the medium of art there are plenty of neat examples that could go above and beyond the concept. In the movie Bruce Almighty Jim Carrey's character believes he's been in so many problems he think he can to better than the Christian singular being God. In that sense when he becomes God he is able to make his life better and when he thinks about other people in doing so causes more problems. He is given the rule to not interfere with free will. He answers prayers in the form of emails and so much so only the ones he replies to grant more meaning to other people. But as a finite being he is unable to catch up. He then goes back to his normal self and realizes he doesn't want to be God.

In Futurama's episode Overclockwise, Bender adds so much components to himself he, a robot with human emotions (for the sake of things I know about the show) becomes God for a brief moment creating entire galaxies. Later in the show he goes back to being himself because he doesn't want to and it's easier being himself.
In The Twilight Zone's episode A Game of Pool (which mirrors Arthur's episode) the best player of Pool living beats the one before him (who loses on purpose) and finds meaning in the fact that he'd be in a loop doing only one thing forever which can be a very hard thing to get out of.

Greek Gods were a part of mythology which is the stories and framework as to explain the meaning of things as to why they happen. They explained how and why things were happening in the real world with out any other explanations otherwise. They had human characteristics and motivations and really were just brought up by people telling stories and not by actually trying to find them.

There are people out there who believe they are God already or they can kill God and make the world their own (which is probably a very small amount of people). The Pope is an example. SMT has a way of having the player kill God with his friends because they think he's very destructive. Here's the thing. Do you think you will be granted powers if you do? Imagine being a higher dimensional being existing because someone believed in you. That's the course of what's kinda canon for SMT.

 

[phofufury]

This is very interesting imo, however, I do not believe any mortal can come to the statehood of being a god. Being a god will essentially grant you immortality, and you'll be the most powerful being in the whole universe. There cannot be multiple gods, as then that would defeat the purpose of being a god. anyways, those who have stated being gods, or possess powers of gods, there are not. They have died, and they were certainly not anymore powerful than anyone else.

However, I do like how you said that what if one becomes more than a master of their craft. In a sense, maybe they would become a god of their craft, much like the Greek gods. But, imo, they would not be gods of their craft, for again, being a god would grant you unlimited powers. They instead, would become higher than a master. They would become the teacher, they have so much knowledge of their craft, that they would be able to teach others their craft.

This was a very interesting subject, very creative as well. It really got me thinking!

 

[Crowing]

Throughout my experiences in the medium of art there are plenty of neat examples that could go above and beyond the concept. In the movie Bruce Almighty Jim Carrey's character believes he's been in so many problems he think he can to better than the Christian singular being God. In that sense when he becomes God he is able to make his life better and when he thinks about other people in doing so causes more problems. He is given the rule to not interfere with free will. He answers prayers in the form of emails and so much so only the ones he replies to grant more meaning to other people. But as a finite being he is unable to catch up. He then goes back to his normal self and realizes he doesn't want to be God.

In Futurama's episode Overclockwise, Bender adds so much components to himself he, a robot with human emotions (for the sake of things I know about the show) becomes God for a brief moment creating entire galaxies. Later in the show he goes back to being himself because he doesn't want to and it's easier being himself.
In The Twilight Zone's episode A Game of Pool (which mirrors Arthur's episode) the best player of Pool living beats the one before him (who loses on purpose) and finds meaning in the fact that he'd be in a loop doing only one thing forever which can be a very hard thing to get out of.

Greek Gods were a part of mythology which is the stories and framework as to explain the meaning of things as to why they happen. They explained how and why things were happening in the real world with out any other explanations otherwise. They had human characteristics and motivations and really were just brought up by people telling stories and not by actually trying to find them.

There are people out there who believe they are God already or they can kill God and make the world their own (which is probably a very small amount of people). The Pope is an example. SMT has a way of having the player kill God with his friends because they think he's very destructive. Here's the thing. Do you think you will be granted powers if you do? Imagine being a higher dimensional being existing because someone believed in you. That's the course of what's kinda canon for SMT.

Godhood, as the name would imply, is certainly not a role that would be easy to uphold. Those who desire positions of power are often unfit to be in them for this very reason - their lust for power and eventual pride overrides their logical thinking required to accomplish said tasks. In my eyes, godhood would be as you suggested, far too difficult a position for mortal minds to endure.

Which is exactly why one would need to go beyond the state of humanity if they were to fit said position, absolving themselves of thoughts and feelings which would cloud their judgement and ability to efficiently perform the tasks required of a god. This is why I believe apotheosis would not be an easy task, especially for those who actively desire such - as I have already said, the greatest weakness in apotheosis is desire.

To some extent, I believe there was more to the Greek pantheon than simply being stories, but this is a subjective agnostic viewpoint which would detract from the original concept of this idea. Primarily, I used the pantheons as an example to demonstrate how polytheism would come into play with apotheosis, with each apotheosized individual holding dominion over a certain craft rather than a monotheistic omnipotent god.

This would mean there is no singular omnipotent god ruling over us at any given time. Like a council of sorts, as a monotheistic system could lead itself to failures like a dictatorship could. Plato suggested aristocracy, rule by the wise*, is the ideal form of a ruling system, which I believe would be ideal to a council of gods. As you said, the Greek gods were still human and often acted on desire, which is why we cannot expect gods to be flawless beings.

If I recall correctly, a jury requires all members to reach an unanimous decision before the person can be accused guilty of their crime. There is no majority vote. As such, this is how a council of gods should work in order to truly be an aristocracy, all minds working as one. This would absolve of individual fallacies in reaching a decision. However, a monotheistic system would not have this measure in place, and individual fallacies would instead be fatal.

Haven't played SMT so I can't really comment on that. However, as I've mentioned, one cannot kill a god so easily, as such would require strength of will which would be impossible to achieve by anyone with such baseless desires. It would need to be cleverly devised to work, much like filling a god's shoes, and the sheer amount of desire to perform a task would be likely override the ability to think so carefully in such a scenario.

*I've heard aristocracy also referred to by "rule of the best" but this seems to refer to best as in wisest, so I'll keep wise as the definition to avoid confusion to my meaning. Nowadays, it is used to refer to a class of elites, but I do not believe this has anything to do with the type of aristocracy Plato is referring to.

This is very interesting imo, however, I do not believe any mortal can come to the statehood of being a god. Being a god will essentially grant you immortality, and you'll be the most powerful being in the whole universe. There cannot be multiple gods, as then that would defeat the purpose of being a god. anyways, those who have stated being gods, or possess powers of gods, there are not. They have died, and they were certainly not anymore powerful than anyone else.

However, I do like how you said that what if one becomes more than a master of their craft. In a sense, maybe they would become a god of their craft, much like the Greek gods. But, imo, they would not be gods of their craft, for again, being a god would grant you unlimited powers. They instead, would become higher than a master. They would become the teacher, they have so much knowledge of their craft, that they would be able to teach others their craft.

This was a very interesting subject, very creative as well. It really got me thinking!

Although not an easy task, I believe it is doable, as I have explained in my original post. The idea is like asking if it's possible to outrun the speed of light. Many science fiction stories contemplate FTL (faster than light). Some say it's possible, others impossible. What is the truth? The truth is, like a caveman thinking about telephones*, the idea is too far-fetched to logically comprehend.

But now we have telephones and maybe we'll be time travelling in a decade or two like we also once believed to be impossible. As such, when thinking about otherworldly machinations, I contemplate with "maybe" instead of "what if".

As for monotheism versus polytheism, I went over that in my response to Artisan, with how a council of gods would be more just than a singular omnipotent being. The former would be akin to a jury while the latter would be more likely a dictatorship. While singular deities may seem more logical by the Occam's razor principle, I believe a council would be much more effective in practice. They would be immune to the fallacies I've mentioned previously.

Master into god, this is why I included to quote from Ghost at the beginning, which sums up a large part of my theory quite simply. The two main factors of a god are omnipotence (all-powerful) and omniscience (all-knowing), and if you were to perfectly master a craft, you would essentially be half god already. So what about omnipotence? This is where I get a little stuck, which is why I included a little on the Threshold Guardian, as I believe this is where the higher forces themselves would come into play. However, this is akin to a deus ex machinma and not a satisfying end to my theory, so I'll say a little more:

No one to our knowledge has yet managed to perfect a craft. We still have scientists aspiring to uncover the mysteries of the universe, artists who wish to be flawless in their depictions, so no one can say what would happen when they do. Once you've accomplished all your goals in life, what comes after that? Nobody knows. Surely, a new path would open up, perhaps one leading into a transcended version of what you had once mastered...

My theory is also that knowledge is power. A knife is meaningless if one does not know how to use it. As such, knowledge and power could essentially be viewed as the same, akin to my previous idea of all paths ultimately leading into occultism. Again, nobody has reached this point, so nobody knows. My theory here only covers half of apotheosis and this is far as I can go fow now. I believe achieving one half of godhood would result in an induction into the other, the Threshold Guardian, completing the apotheosis in full, but that is only speculation... isn't this all nothing more than speculation, after all?

*Of course, a caveman could not even comprehend a telephone at all as they were far more primitive back then, but you get the gist. Someone from generations ago would not have predicted the advancements we have since made.

 

[phofufury]

*Of course, a caveman could not even comprehend a telephone at all as they were far more primitive back then, but you get the gist. Someone from generations ago would not have predicted the advancements we have since made.

now this is an interesting point. I do agree that many possibilities are still far fetched, and our minds are not able to comprehend it yet. However, this is to a point. Someone from generations ago have predicted many advancements that we have made. One of my favorite examples is an old radio show, called Dimension X. This was way back in 1950. The series ended in 1951. This was science fiction at it's finest, giving in to our hunger of "what if" and other possibilities. In some of their episodes, they have had gadgets much similar to ours today. They had "smart homes" and smart phones. They dug into the thot of the future. Here we are today, we have a lot of which was once science fiction.

 

[Artisan]

"What if man could harness the power of a god? In a sense, he would need God no longer, yes?"
-Ghost, "From the Pinnacle to the Pit"

Alright, take two. I've been thinking. There are so many specialized tasks out there than pinpointing every single one would imply that the council would either be too big, or really generalized. For example Poseidon ruled over the sea but also made horses. How would you ever consider them to be related? Point into something like making FPGA or general game consoles (a craft). They have parts sealed away in chips they have no idea how they work other than they rework themselves to associate with previous devices and are so small you'd think that's how the human brain should work as well. The problem is it takes so long or short for someone to understand and yet if it's not a passion somewhere it will never reach understanding beyond what we already know. You would need to be all knowing of chemistry to make a chip and parts, math to develop circuitry and game theory, Language to develop games, resources at your disposal that not everyone has so you might need to bargain, legal aspects to keep from losing resources, and passion to show something to the world they might be as passionate as you without knowledge of half the things that you already have. You need some respect of the fact that you would need to act in a way together rather than alone and the only difference between you and God is God works alone. We only have knowledge we understand but we weren't born with that understanding and we don't hold understanding.